ORDER OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE

SIR: It has been decided to mark the Silver Jubilee of the appointment of the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, to be Grand Master of The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by the issue of a plate bearing an heraldic design expressly devised for the occasion. This plate will be a companion to the one designed by Somerset Herald of Arms to mark the Diamond Jubilee, in 1977, of the institution of the Order. As before, it will be produced through the Gilbey Jubilee Collection and will be available only to holders of the Order at all levels from G.B.E. to R.E.M., and to members of their families. Would all those who are eligible and who did not receive details of the Diamond Jubilee plate please communicate with me as soon as possible so that the relevant information may be dispatched. 83 Charlotte Street, A. J. GILBEY. London W1 P 2AR. United Kingdom. site and immobilization of the limb may be life saving after an acute untoward reaction to an injected drug or when the wrong drug or an excessive dosage of a drug has been administered. Another application may be found in deliberately retarding the central movement of drugs such as a cytotoxic agent in order to maximize its local effects.


SIMPLE METHOD TO DELAY THE MOVEMENT FROM THE SITE OF INJECTION OF LOW MOLECULAR
WEIGHT SUBSTANCES 400 SIR: During the last 12 months, we have been studying the absorption from the site of injection of Australian snake venoms' and, more recently, the venoms of several exotic (overseas) snakes. With the 11 major Australian land snakes we found that firm pressure over the site of venom injection, combined with immobilization of the affected limb, effectively delayed venom movement. These results have established safe and comfortable first-aid measures for snakebite in this country.
The effectiveness of these first-aid measures in relation to the movement of low molecular weight substances was determined by the following experiment. Two conscious monkeys / I --the proportion of male drivers who disregard the drinking-driving legislation. To obtain a crosssection of Australian men, it was felt that football spectators would provide a better sample than household surveys, since the respondents would be more certain that their anonymity would be preserved. Interviews were conducted with 221 men aged between 17 and 69 years randomly selected from football spectators in Perth. Men who were approached and who stated that they did not hold a current motor-car driver's licence were not included in the survey. A respondent was classified as a drinker if he said that he did drink alcohol. The interviews were structured, lasted approximately two minutes and were conducted by two women. Refusal rate was less than 8%.
Subjects were asked their age, whether or not they drove a car, if they drank alcohol and, if they did, whether they drove at times with a BAC above the 0.08% limit. If the last answer was affirmative they were asked to indicate the frequency of the occurrence on a scale ranging from "more than once a week" to "less than once a year". Table 1  From these results, 96% of the men were drinkers and 71% of drinkers drove at least sometimes when their BAC was above the legal limit. Figure 1 shows the drinking-driving pattern and age distribution of respondents; the distribution is similar to the one reported earlier." The results are alarming with regard to the number of respondents who admitted driving with a BAC in excess of 0.08%. One aspect which highlighted the community's acceptance of drinking-driving behaviour was the blase manner in which respondents admitted their illegal activity, yet at times took exception to being questioned about their age! ALI A. LANDAUER  The appearance of the radioactive iodine in the bloodstream, that is, clearance from the site of injection, was monitored by taking periodic 2 mL venous blood samples and counting them in a Packard Autogamma scintillation spectrophotometer. The results are shown in the Figure. We cannot explain the lower level of circulating' 26 1in Monkey 1 at 90 minutes. Both monkeys had similar thyroid "61 uptake.
The finding that such a bandaging procedure effectively prevents elevation of the blood level of this low molecular weight substance could well have a number of immediate applications outside the field of management of the envenomed patient. Firm pressure over the injection SIR: I would like to commend the Journal for featuring rehabilitation medicine in the November 17 issue. However, I feel some comment is necessary on the letter by Sir George Bedbrook and Dr James Watson (Journal, November 17).
I am delighted that Sir George and Dr Watson have advanced such cogent argument in favour of the speciality of rehabilitation medicine and in favour of the upgrading of training and postgraduate qualification in the speciality.
The newly incorporated Australian College of Rehabilitation Medicine has been established to achieve just these objectives and, as its very representative body of Founder Fellows are all already recognized specialists, we feel sure that this can be achieved. The new College will indeed seek the advice and assistance of the already established Colleges in achieving its objectives and will welcome the help which I am sure will be forthcoming. The overseeing of training and qualification leading to Fellowship of th' Australian College of Rehabilitation Medicine will be responsibly handled and will, I feel, avoid the lack of cohesiveness inherent in any conjoint action by a number of different organizations. 41 Parklands Road, B. W. NORINGTON. North Ryde, N.SW. 2113. SIR: With the periodic and present resurgence of the otherwise less fashionable field of rehabilitation medicine, its newsworthiness is evident again judging from the amount of space dedicated to it in the November 17, 1979, edition of the Journal. There is a good reason for this of course and as Sir George Bedbrook and Dr James Watson point out (Journal, November 17), time is long overdue for providing